“New York risks slipping back to the bad old days where late budgets became the accepted norm,” Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein said in a statement.

Andrew Rein, president of the commission, warned that late budgets erode public confidence in government. And he criticized a lack of transparency in the budget process. “A little late is worth the wait, but only if the budget’s great,” he quipped. “We’re getting past a little late.”

Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at the watchdog group Citizens Budget Commission, said that if there’s money on the table, the state should go after it. But the challenges lie in banking on $4 billion in the budget without a guarantee that those funds will come to fruition.

“Ultimately, someone is having to pay the cost. And for those riders and drivers who are continuing to do the right thing and pay their fares and pay their tolls, they may ultimately have to bear a larger cost,” Ana Champeny said.

"Andrew Rein of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission agreed, saying: 'You should not use short-term money for long-term needs. That is a prescription for fiscal instability or worse.'"

"But the city is still working toward a balanced budget. When the Council released its preliminary budget response this week, it identified more than $3 billion in additional tax revenue for the current and upcoming fiscal years. The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit think tank, has cautioned the Council’s estimates could be overly optimistic."

Per-student outlays are up more than 25% in that span, with the FY 2025 number, per the Citizens Budget Commission, projected to hit nearly $40,000 — i.e., more than tuition at many private schools.

"Last week, we noted that the Housing Authority struggles to fill units, despite a nearly endless waiting list. On Wednesday, the agency’s leaders addressed the issue at a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast."

Patrick Orecki spoke on CBC’s biggest concerns in the budget, “The state is still using a lot of nonrecurring revenue in the budget right now from temporary tax increases, still have some federal aid from COVID, and that goes away over time. So the structural problem we think is even bigger.”

"The 2023 Resident Survey by the nonprofit think tank Citizens Budget Commission generally found that most living in New York City rated their quality of life and city services lower than in 2017. But just 20.8% of Bronxites gave positive ratings to their quality of life — down from nearly 41% in 2017."

"The income brackets, which were first proposed at 40% to 80% of the AMI, were later adjusted to address that concern. The purely advisory civic panel, however, has overall supported new housing units, according to the Citizens Budget Commission."

"“New Yorkers are feeling much less safe, with only 37% rating public safety in their neighborhood as excellent or good, down from 50% in 2017,” the CBC’s vice president for research Ana Champeny said in testimony before the City Council."